“Explain yourself, Sienna,” Hansa barked, “before I run my sword through both of you!”

Sienna’s green eyes grew wide with horror. Jax groaned, then placed his hand on Hansa’s blade, lowering it.

“She’s not going to do that, Sienna, don’t worry,” he said calmly, then gave the succubus a stern look. Hansa wasn’t having it, though.

“Are you kidding? After what she put us and her family through?” Hansa retorted, then gave Sienna a cold glare. “Explain yourself, Sienna. Your family thinks you’re dead. You’re part of the reason we got dragged into this daemon mess. And you’re here, living it up with one!”

“I’m sorry!” Sienna cried out. “I truly am! But… But Tobiah won’t hurt you, I promise! Please, spare him!”

“Okay, okay, let’s do this the right way,” Jax replied, putting his sword away. “The daemon stays down while we have a quick conversation, and you take a few steps back. We don’t know anything about you and the creature at this point, and we want to make sure you’re safe.”

“I am safe! Tobiah would never hurt me,” Sienna sobbed.

Jax motioned to Hansa, prompting her to put her sword away, as well. She didn’t seem happy to do it, but I figured they wanted Sienna calm and separated from the daemon, in case things went south fast. The young Mara may have claimed that Tobiah wouldn’t hurt her, but Jax didn’t want to risk giving him such an opportunity. We didn’t know enough about the daemon to stop considering him an enemy. I’d been around Jax for long enough to understand how his judgment worked.

I looked toward the tracking spell. It was still moving slowly. We could spare a few minutes here, and we clearly needed to make some sense out of what we were seeing with Sienna and her daemon.

“Sienna, move away from Tobiah,” Hansa instructed. “We won’t hurt him if we don’t have to, I promise. Just do this for now, for our peace of mind.”

Sienna wiped her tears with the sleeve of her dress, then pushed herself up and took a couple of steps back, her gaze fixed on the daemon, who stayed down on his knees. He looked around at us, his red eyes glimmering slightly, as if carefully analyzing us. He was handsome, by all possible standards, his horns, a dark shade of gray, creating an interesting contrast with his long, ash-blond hair.

He retracted his claws and fangs, his shoulder dropping slowly as he seemed to accept the fact that he was outnumbered.

The moons had set by now—shortly after our latest daemon scuffle—and the sun was preparing to rise, somewhere east of the gorge. We pulled our hoods over our heads, preparing to shield ourselves from the first rays. Patrik, Caia, and Blaze were spared this daily ritual—not that it bothered me much, as vampirism came with some exquisite perks. Sienna noticed, as she pulled her own hood and frowned at the three.

“What are you?” she asked.

“Druid, fire fae, dragon,” Hansa replied, pointing at each of them. “Now, talk to us, Sienna. What’s going on here?”

“Dragon… I’ve only heard of dragons in old tales… Who are you people?” the Exiled Mara replied, biting her lower lip. Her jaw dropped when Caspian approached, his expression darkened slightly by the hood pulled over his head. “Caspian…”

“These are people from Eritopia. They were brought here to help find our missing people. Including you,” Caspian said. “It would be wise of you to tell them what you’re doing here with a daemon, while your mother and brother are losing their minds, believing you are dead.”

“From Eritopia?” Sienna’s eyes widened with surprise as she looked at us. She gave Tobiah a warm glance and a reassuring nod. “I’m sorry, I’m just shocked that you all made it this far into the gorges. This is a very dangerous place.”

“No kidding,” I shot back, sarcasm dripping from my tone. I put my swords away and crossed my arms over my chest. Heron and Avril kept their blades out and aimed at Tobiah, while Scarlett, Patrik, Caia, and Blaze sheathed theirs.

“Sienna, it really doesn’t matter that we made it all the way here. We’re professionals, and we’re trained for this.” Jax scoffed. “What really matters is why you’re here, and not at home with your family and friends.”

Sienna let out a long, tortured sigh, one hand playing with a lock of her hair, nervously twisting it around her fingers.

“I’m not going back home,” she stated, then gazed around the gorge with a dreamy look in her eyes. “This is my home, now.”

“The gorge. The Valley of Screams. The place where hundreds of your people have gone missing and were most likely killed.” Hansa gave her a disparaging smile.

“It’s where Tobiah lives. And I’m in love with him,” Sienna retorted, unfazed. “I’m here for him. Because I want to be here with him.”

Several moments passed as we glanced at each other, then stared at the daemon kneeling in front of us. To say that this was unexpected would have been an extreme understatement.

“You’ve been gone for over a week, and you’re in love with a daemon?” I asked, recalling the timeline of Sienna’s disappearance. “How do you even know about the daemons when the whole city, more or less, has no idea what they are?”

Sienna wore a sheepish smile and gave Caspian a brief glance before looking at me.

“I didn’t know who or what they were either, until I met Tobiah,” she mumbled. “Our people have been vanishing for two years now. My family was already a pain to deal with, so strict and stupidly superficial… With all the disappearances, it just made life even harder for me. I felt like I was living in a cage. I wasn’t allowed to go out after sundown, which was ridiculous because I’m a Mara. Of course I need to be out after sundown! But I never planned for any of this to happen, I swear. It just happened! A few months ago, Tobiah showed his face to me while I was in my gazebo…”

I blinked several times, trying to picture that scene—Sienna lounging in her gazebo behind the Roho mansion, and an invisible daemon simply coming up to her. I couldn’t help but imagine an eagle swooping down and grabbing an unsuspecting rabbit. Except, in this case, the rabbit seemed to have the hots for the eagle.

This is a whole new level of weird…

“I don’t… I can’t quite wrap my head around this,” Hansa replied, scowling at the daemon.

“If… If I may?” Tobiah slowly lifted a hand, politely requesting permission to speak.

Jax raised an eyebrow, then gave him a brief nod.

“It’s all my fault,” Tobiah said.

“Understatement of the day.” I snorted. Caspian shifted closer to me, his arm gently brushing against mine.

“I first noticed Sienna on the first level of the city,” Tobiah continued. “I’d been prowling all night, looking to feed—”

“Eat a soul, you mean,” Hansa interrupted him.

A muscled twitched in the daemon’s jaw, but he kept a straight face as he went on.

“Yes, I was looking for a soul to eat,” Tobiah replied. “Sienna was there, laughing with some Imen girls. I… I couldn’t stop watching her. At first, I wanted to feed on her. She looked so beautiful under the moonlight, I kept wondering what her soul would taste like—”

“What does a soul taste like?” I asked.

Tobiah looked at me, a half-smile stretching his lips.

“It’s like drinking liquid sunshine,” he replied. “Happiness filling your mouth and lighting up your soul. It’s incredibly addictive, and it does things to your body. You get stronger. Faster. Smarter.”

“Like a nuclear battery,” Avril muttered from the side.

“So you took Sienna.” Hansa brought the conversation back on track, while Jax motioned to Heron and Avril to put their swords away. There were too many of us against Tobiah. He wouldn’t stand a chance in these circumstances if he did try anything.

“I did, but only because she wanted to come with me,” Tobiah said, giving Sienna a look filled with longing and affection. “The night I first saw her, I followed her up to the mansion. I watched her for a while, and… Well, I couldn’t take it anymore. There was a small spring gushing down the mountain, so I washed up and revealed myself to her.”

I gave Caspian a sideways glance and noticed how calm and unfazed he appeared, while the rest of us were struggling to keep our eyes from popping out of our heads as Tobiah-the-freaking-daemon and Sienna told us their love story.

“You don’t look surprised at all, Lord Kifo,” I murmured. “Did you know all this?”

He gave me a bored look, slowly shaking his head.

“You really shouldn’t rely on my facial expressions as indicators of any emotions or knowledge that I might possess, Miss Hellswan. I was trained in a military fashion. You can’t read me like you do others. And to answer your question, no. I had no idea.” He scoffed.

“I’ll figure you out eventually,” I muttered, narrowing my eyes at him before refocusing on Sienna and Tobiah. “So, what, you swooned and negotiated a happily ever after?”

“No! Not at all!” Sienna giggled. “I was terrified of him at first. At least, for the first few days. He kept coming around afterward, every night, without exception. He brought me blood to drink. He kept me warm. We got to know each other better, and… I fell in love.”

“So you ran away with him, I presume,” I interrupted.

“Well, yes.” Tobiah shrugged. “I couldn’t be with her in Azure Heights, and she couldn’t exactly pack her bags and leave her family behind. They would’ve used her as bait to draw me out, then kill me. She’s everything to me. She’s the only creature in this world whose soul I don’t want to consume. I want to cherish it because it’s beautiful, and her family, her city… They’re not worthy of it. I feel it in her smile, in the way she looks at me. It’s precious…”

“I let Tobiah snatch me from the gazebo a week ago,” Sienna added, smiling at the daemon. “And he gave me freedom.”

“Then why didn’t you send word to Azure Heights to at least tell your family that you’re still alive?” Hansa asked.

“You don’t know my family the way I do,” Sienna replied. “They would’ve found a way to keep me away from Tobiah. Even worse, they would’ve tried to hurt him or kill him. I was tired of all the rules and etiquette, anyway. I like it here. It’s simple, and wild, and it’s our home. We’re away from everything and everyone, and we only have each other… I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“The other daemons think she’s my prey, and they keep their distance,” Tobiah explained. “I’ve fought plenty of them off to keep this part of the gorge safe.”

“And yes, my family thinks I’m missing,” Sienna added. “I’d be more comfortable if they thought I was dead. It’s better for everyone, because I could never go back to Azure Heights. Not now, after I’ve experienced bliss in Tobiah’s arms…”

“This is getting a little too sweet for my taste,” Heron muttered, awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

“Sweet? How about crazy? Unfathomable? Weird?” Avril chimed in, still having difficulties with this unconventional couple.

“Well, we are happy here.” Sienna held her chin up. “Sure, it gets dangerous, and Tobiah has to fight some of his own people to keep me safe, but we’re together. And no one in Azure Heights will ever understand.”

“Okay, so, I got the lovey-dovey part down,” Hansa replied bluntly, then moved closer to Tobiah. “Get up.”

Tobiah obeyed and stood, and suddenly we were all quite short by comparison. He’d been on his knees for long enough to make us forget exactly how big he really was. He made Sienna look like a fragile little creature, the top of her head barely reaching his chest.

“Tell us about your daemons,” Hansa continued. “What do they want? What are they doing here? Why are they taking people? What’s their play?”

“The gorges are part of our hunting grounds,” Tobiah explained. “We have caves, where we feed and store our bigger game, all over the Valley of Screams. Daemons don’t actually live here. Our world is deep underground… We like it hot, you could say, in the dark corners and volcanic flames beneath the surface of Neraka. This is just one of our favorite hunting areas. Daemons don’t want anything in particular, other than to live our lives and hunt at leisure. We feed on souls, but, if we can’t get any, raw meat will do, although we need to eat more often if we don’t consume souls.”

“Is that why you’re taking people? Exiled Maras and Imen alike?” Jax asked.

“Yes.” Tobiah nodded slowly. “A single soul can keep us sated for days. We don’t like coming to the surface too often. I’m one of the few exceptions who like it here. Anyone passing through these gorges is potential prey. We don’t make any exceptions.”

“Then, if you have the gorges, why did you start hunting in the plains and in the city?” Jax replied.

“The Maras have been hunting in the Valley of Screams for too long,” Tobiah said. “This is our turf. The daemons aren’t kind or forgiving creatures. We are extremely territorial, especially where our hunting grounds are concerned. The Maras had it coming, sooner or later. Their feeding habits caused the population of large wild animals in these gorges to dwindle. There are thousands of them in that city, draining the blood from moon-bison, black deer, brown boars, and even the wolves and bears. They screwed up our raw meat sources. So we started screwing with them.”

The daemon grinned, exhibiting contempt toward the Exiled Maras. This sounded like a territorial dispute between the Maras and the daemons.

“Do they know it’s your people taking theirs?” I asked.

“I don’t think so.” Tobiah shook his head. “We usually kill those to whom we reveal ourselves. With Sienna being my obvious exception, of course… Like I said, we aren’t exactly the nicest of creatures. We just had enough of the Exiled Maras killing our wild game. It was time to change the status quo, because the daemons had gotten the short end of the stick.”

“And talking to them was not even on the table?” I replied, pressing my lips into a thin line.

Tobiah looked at me, then cocked his head to one side.

“How many times do I have to tell you? Daemons are not into the whole “peaceful talking and shaking hands” thing. You come to our land, you mess with our food, we hit back. So, yes, we’ve been hunting the citizens of Azure Heights for quite some time now. Personally, I only snatched a few, mostly from the plains. The one time I went into the city was when I saw Sienna. I haven’t returned to Azure Heights since.”

“So you two will just stay here, while your people kill one another?” Hansa shot back, her voice trembling with anger and her nostrils flaring. “Because once we confirm what your species does, the Exiled Maras will retaliate. It’ll be a bloodbath, and it’ll be thanks to your inability to talk things out.”

Sienna moved closer to Tobiah. He put his arm around her shoulder, then dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

“I cannot intervene,” the daemon replied. “I’m a free agent now, and Sienna’s wellbeing is my only concern. If I get involved, my people will brand me a traitor. They won’t accept any explanations or excuses. They’ll just tear me to shreds, and after they’re done with me, they’ll eat Sienna’s soul and feast on her flesh.”

“We won’t stand a chance,” Sienna explained. “We’ve managed to settle here, by this pond. We may have to move later, but, for now, we’re safe. But you’re right about one thing. I should say something to my family, to at least give them some closure.”

“That’s a wise choice.” Caspian nodded curtly, his jade gaze darting between her and the daemon.

“What are the chances any of you have a piece of paper and a quill, or something to write with?” Sienna looked at each of us, her eyebrows raised.

“I might be able to help,” Scarlett replied, and pulled her journal and pen from her backpack, handing them over to the Exiled Mara.

Sienna then sat down on a nearby rock, scribbling a message for her brother and mother. She frequently sighed as she filled a couple of pages.

“It’s difficult to find the right words,” she mumbled. “I’m not sure they’ll understand my relationship with Tobiah, but at least they’ll know that I don’t want to come back, ever again.”

“You know, Vincent’s somewhere nearby,” I said. “He’d have come with us, but we got separated after the gorge collapsed farther back.”

Sienna’s head shot up, and I could see the pain in her eyes, the longing to see her brother again, before she blinked several times and returned to her initial resolve.

“I hope he’s staying safe,” she replied. “I don’t understand why he put himself at such a risk by coming here. He barely makes it down to the first level in the city.”

“He’s helping us. Speaking of which, you didn’t happen to see a young woman being carried around by a daemon tonight, did you?” I figured it was worth a shot, but both Sienna and Tobiah shook their heads. I sighed, disappointment weighing on me. “Okay… Back to your brother: if we give him this message for you, how will he know it’s yours?”

“He should be able to recognize my handwriting, and I’ll leave a special line for my brother, so he can authenticate the message as mine. We made up our own limericks when we were children.” She gave me a weak smile.

I glanced ahead while she finished the message, my eyes fixing on the tracking spell under two hundred yards away. At least it was still constant on its path. Sienna and Tobiah hadn’t seen Fiona around here, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t come this way. Maybe the daemon who took her kept her hidden.

The tracking spell was supposed to be precise, following the exact path that Fiona had taken. Sooner or later, we were going to find her. I was aiming for sooner.